From: Honolulu Star-Advertiser
ATF ran slush fund from tobacco warehouse
By Matt Apuzzo
Newly unsealed records reveal a widespread scheme by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that began as a way to catch black-market cigarette dealers and transformed into a nearly untraceable slush fund that agents from around the country could tap. Shown is a warehouse used by the ATF during a seven-year undercover tobacco operation in Bristol, Va.
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When The New York Times revealed the existence of the secret account in February, publicly available documents made it seem like the work of a few agents run amok. But thousands of pages of newly unsealed records reveal a widespread scheme — a highly unorthodox merger of an undercover law enforcement operation and a legitimate business. What began as a way to catch black-market cigarette dealers quickly transformed into a nearly untraceable ATF slush fund that agents from around the country could tap.
The spending was not limited to investigative expenses. Two informants made $6 million each. One agent steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate, electronics and money to his church and his children’s sports teams, records show.
